SI Adds N.Y. Times' Pete Thamel To Challenge Rival CBS Sports

N.Y. Times college sports reporter Pete Thamel is leaving the paper to join Sports Illustrated, according to Jason McIntyre of THE BIG LEAD. SI "recently made some cuts, but the addition of Thamel should put SI in a position to challenge CBS Sports for supremacy on the college sports front" (THEBIGLEAD.com, 7/31). In N.Y., Keith Kelly notes Thamel and Fox Sports’ Thayer Evans “will reunite as part of a new enterprise team." SI is “beefing up its investigative team after cutting its staff by 8 percent just two weeks ago.” The duo “wrote groundbreaking pieces for the Times on college-sports abuses and high-school diploma mills.” The move by SI Group Editor Terry McDonell “to shore up the mag’s writing talent follows a number of defections in recent years.” Elsewhere, SI.com Managing Editor Paul Fichtenbaum “just moved from his office on the 32nd floor to a bigger office on the 31st floor, where most of the print writers and McDonell himself sit.” Eventually, McDonell and Fichtenbaum “plan to end the division between print and digital” (N.Y. POST, 8/1). SI's Stewart Mandel wrote on his Twitter feed, "A big day for SI and our CFB/CBB readers." Yahoo Sports' Graham Watson: "Congrats to @PeteThamelNYT and his move to SI. Great for SI, bad for NYT and even worse for schools like Coastal Carolina."

MORE MEDIA MOVES: News Corp’s daily digital national news publication -- The Daily -- yesterday announced content and personnel changes at the publication. A total of 50 full-time employees, 29% of the full-time staff, will be released. The sports and opinion sections, which saw the lightest traffic, are being reorganized. Sports reporting will now be provided by content partners, like Fox Sports, while existing features like photo galleries and the ability to track favorite teams via a customizable sports page will remain (News Corp.).